U.S. Warns Iran on New Missiles : Stresses Risk of Strike if Arms Are Deployed

In its strongest warning yet that Iran could face a preemptive strike if it deploys Chinese-made Silkworm missiles, the Reagan Administration said Sunday that deployment would be considered a hostile act and would “run the risk of retaliation.”

Administration officials, fearing that the Iranians plan to deploy the missiles near the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, left little doubt that the United States would consider the move justification for a military attack to put them out of commission.

Both White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. and President Reagan’s national security assistant, Frank C. Carlucci, described the situation in the war-torn gulf in grave terms. They warned Iran against deploying the missiles or taking any other action to carry out its threats to close the strait militarily to prevent tankers loaded with oil from leaving the gulf.

‘Strong Signal’ to Iran

Later, a Reagan Administration official said the comments represented a carefully planned warning intended to send “a strong signal” to Iran not to proceed with the deployment.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a preemptive strike intended to destroy the missile batteries before they could be used is one of the options under consideration by the Administration.

But, he added, “If you’re asking if a decision has been made (to launch such a strike), the answer is no.”

Baker, declaring that deployment would be a hostile act representing an escalation in a region already bristling with weapons, said, “It’s my hope that the Iranians will decide that it’s not worth it to deploy those missiles and run the risk of retaliation.”

But, when asked about a preemptive attack, he said, “The United States ought to keep its options open.”

Iran already has more than 20 of the anti-ship HY-2 Silkworm missiles and more are scheduled to be provided by China, according to Carlucci. The Administration has rejected China’s denial that it is the source of the missiles.

Carlucci said the missiles are “getting operational,” but added, in an interview on the Cable News Network’s “Newsmaker” program, that “none of the Silkworm missiles is, today, in a position to fire.”

Carlucci said the United States sent warnings to Iran “through various channels that it would be very unhelpful to them to deploy these missiles.” He said Iran had not replied and “we really don’t know what their intentions are.”

The missiles are believed to have a range of up to 50 miles, making them capable of hitting any target trying to pass through the 30-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz. Baker and Carlucci issued their warnings in televised interviews from Venice where Reagan has been visiting since Wednesday while waiting for the opening of the annual seven-nation economic summit tonight.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Italy’s caretaker prime minister, Amintore Fanfani, arrived here Sunday.

French President Francois Mitterrand, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher are scheduled to arrive today.

Reagan had no events on his schedule Sunday, which he spent at a villa 12 miles north of Venice.

The heads of government will spend most of their time at scheduled work sessions discussing economic issues. But, during dinners and other less formal sessions, they are expected to discuss pressing political issues, such as the tense situation in the Persian Gulf and the U.S. effort to shape a common North Atlantic Treaty Organization stand in support of a treaty with the Soviet Union to virtually eliminate short- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe.

Arms control issues are said to be at the top of the agenda for the opening dinner tonight. Baker predicted that NATO will produce a unified position not only on the matter of intermediate-range weapons but also on the U.S. effort to limit long-range, or strategic, weapons.

Baker, interviewed on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said in answer to a question that it’s possible Iran will bomb U.S. warships patrolling the area, but added, “anything’s possible.”

“You know, that doesn’t happen easily when there is a high state of alert,” he said. “And I think the Iranians . . . they’re not dumb. They understand that the United States is firm and resolute in their determination to keep free shipping in the Persian Gulf, and they know that the United States has said publicly that we’re committed to this policy, and they know they’re locked in a conflict with Iraq and they know that the United States is capable of doing them great damage.”

He said the Iranians have prepared to deploy the weapons “so that they constitute a threat to shipping, and especially to American shipping in the Persian Gulf.”

“It seems to me,” Baker added, “the United States has two choices. The United States can say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry about that--we were just full of bluster and didn’t mean we were going to protect free transit,’ or the United States says, ‘Yes, you bet--you’re not going to stop us and you’re not going to stop other nations of the world from having freedom of the seas to transport oil from the Persian Gulf, even though Iraq and Iran are at war.’ ”

Freedom of transit in the gulf--an integral element in U.S. policy toward the region during both the Jimmy Carter Administration and the Reagan Administration--has assumed increased importance since the attack by an Iraqi warplane on the U.S. guided-missile frigate Stark. The May 17 attack, which Iraq said was accidental, took the lives of 37 American sailors.

Concern has grown since then because the United States is registering 11 Kuwaiti tankers and promising to protect them as they ply the waters between the Strait of Hormuz and the northern gulf oil ports.

At the summit, Reagan is expected to press the other participants to support the U.S. effort in the gulf. However, officials have indicated that they do not expect significant military assistance and instead appear to be focusing on obtaining promises of political backing.

Baker pointed out that the Japanese and West Germans “cannot be involved in the assistance for a naval force to escort because . . . the United States forbade them to have that kind of force after World War II.”

Britain and France, he said, have been “generally supportive.” The two countries already deploy several ships in the area.

The United States accepted a Kuwaiti request to register the ships just as the Soviet Union was moving to offer similar protection to other Kuwaiti tankers.

Baker made it clear that the Soviet action was a factor in the United States’ decision--and will have an impact on the duration of the protective mission.

“It should not be terminated as long as the Kuwaitis want it and as long as the Soviets are still playing in this game,” he said. “As long as the Soviets are there, I don’t want to see us pick up our marbles and go home.”

Throughout the weekend, Iran warned about the consequences of U.S. intervention in the gulf. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Javad Larijani, said Saturday that U.S. involvement would be “unwise” and said European countries want no part of it.

Speaker of Parliament Hashemi Rafsanjani, who represents the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the Iranian Supreme Defense Council, warned the gulf Arab countries during public prayers Friday that Iranian forces would raid any military facilities granted to the United States on their territory.